The Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture,(NACCIMA) has raised the flag warning that the Chief Judge of The Federal High Court direction acceding to the implementation of FIRS tax appeal practice is counter productive and therefore be suspended pending its revision.
The Council comments that Tax Practice Directive, which compels companies to pay 50% of assessed tax to FIRS before any appeal to contest the assessment is allowed to proceed, will practically collapse most businesses in the private sector, and made more difficult by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Council is convinced that the contested rule is bad for business, especially MSMEs which are currently the bedrock of the economy and the employment spinner. It argued that its members will certainly be hard hit and will not and cannot survive the implementation of Practice Direction, some of which provisions require enforcement and forfeiture of immovable property, freezing of a taxpayer’s bank account and sealing of their premises. With such action, many of them will go under and collapse under the weight of these provisions of the FIRS Practice Direction.
The Council, therefore, called for immediate suspension of its implementation to enable a robust stakeholders engagement with the relevant authorities for a revision of the TAX PRACTICE DIRECTION and other hammer crushing tax matters.
